Harley's words had clearly hit Hagrid where it hurt.
When it came to the "adorable little creatures" he talked about, Hagrid was practically fearless. He didn't even care about the law.
The Ministry of Magic's laws prohibited it? No big deal! Hagrid had never cared!
But Hagrid was afraid that the "adorable little creatures" he raised might get hurt.
That was true. Professor Dumbledore had discovered twelve uses for dragon blood. Would he want to discover a thirteenth?
Hagrid stammered, "No, I believe Professor Dumbledore isn't that kind of person..."
But Harley mercilessly shattered his fantasy. "Hagrid, don't forget that dragons are traditionally considered livestock in Britain.
"Diagon Alley sells dragon liver and Dragon Hide, and the prices are clearly marked in the apothecary shops.
"If a dragon is found somewhere it shouldn't be, and it might threaten the safety of young witches and wizards, too,
"I'm sure that Professor Dumbledore and the other professors would all agree to kill it."
Hagrid's face grew even paler, and he slumped into a chair. Hermione piled on, trying to persuade him.
Although she didn't know of any cases involving the fate of illegally kept dragons, Hermione deftly used the fate of lions that escaped from zoos in the Muggle world as an example.
At last, Hagrid began to consider whether he should send the dragon egg away.
"You could ask Ron, or Fred and George in third year," Harley suggested,
"Their older brother, Charlie Weasley, went to the Romanian Dragon Sanctuary to work as a Dragon Keeper.
"You could ask Fred and George to help write a letter and see if they could arrange to send the egg away."
Hagrid looked reluctant, but still nodded. "All right, I'll think about it. If there's really no other choice... I can only send Norbert away.
"Oh, poor Norbert. He'll lose his mother before he's even born!" Tears welled in the corners of Hagrid's eyes again.
Harley and Hermione exchanged a glance and said nothing more, giving Hagrid some time to himself.
After they left the hut, Harley couldn't help asking, "Did that many lions really escape from zoos?"
"Of course not." Hermione clasped her hands behind her back, her smile radiant. "But Hagrid can't verify it either, can he?"
She lifted her little face, seeming to wait for Harley's praise.
"My Hermione is so clever!" Harley replied with a smile, gratifying her expectation as she gently flicked the tip of her nose.
Over the following days, Harley kept receiving materials from Hagrid.
As for the dragon egg, with Harley's help, Hagrid got in touch with the Weasley Twins.
Fred and George were more than happy to help once they learned what was going on. They were even more eager than Harley!
The two of them wrote to their brother and eventually called in one of Charlie's friends. They also slipped out of the school through a secret passage and went to Hogsmeade, where they handed over the egg to Charlie's friend to take away.
Hagrid was heartbroken, but to keep Norbert from becoming a miserable source of ingredients the moment he was born, he could only force himself to bear the pain.
To ease his gloom, Hagrid began spending longer and longer on his patrols in the Forbidden Forest, and provided Harley with even more materials.
After examining them, Harley found that, just as she had suspected, the Beyonder Characteristics—or medicinal properties—they contained were basically the same as the materials from the Sequence Pathway world she had matched them with.
"All that's left is Unicorn Blood. I need a hundred milliliters." One night, Harley lay in bed, looking over her list of materials as she gently bit her fingertip.
She hadn't asked Hagrid to get Unicorn Blood for her. She didn't have many Galleons left.
Although she had used an owl to ask the Goblins to withdraw another sum of money for her, practicing Potion-making was simply too expensive.
So Harley had to budget carefully. It was better to gather the materials herself whenever she could.
"The other auxiliary materials for separating Beyonder Characteristics, as well as the main ingredients, are all ready. I'll start tomorrow night.
"Unicorns only like pure-hearted girls... Well, that happens to describe me! After all, my body is only eleven years old right now!
"I hope unicorns can't see into people's thoughts. Otherwise, not a single Demoness of Pleasure would ever succeed."
Harley rolled over onto her stomach, her little white feet patting the blanket.
"Hmm, unicorns... Their habits seem so perverted. I hope they'll cooperate. But this curse..."
Harley looked at the sealed box by her bed. Inside was a bottle, dull and lusterless, that looked like nothing more than an ordinary vase.
But in reality, the bottle had once held a failed Apothecary Potion and had been corrupted into a Sealed Artifact.
Harley had named this Sealed Artifact the Bottle of Decomposition.
Sealed Artifacts were Mystical Items with severe side effects that had to be kept sealed away.
The bottle had somehow taken on a strange property. Whenever it was used, it would try to secretly drink the user's blood.
At the same time, any Potion or material placed inside it would gradually decompose.
But this decomposition happened in stages.
For example, if a Potion from the Witch Pathway was put into the bottle, its liquid would first separate into distinct layers of Black Abyss Demon Fish blood and Onyx Peacock egg fluid.
Then pure water, Golden Datura juice, Daffodil juice, and the other auxiliary ingredients would slowly separate out from those two liquids.
So Harley wanted to make use of this negative effect.
Based on Harley's reasoning, there were two possible explanations for why Unicorn Blood carried a curse.
One possibility was that when a unicorn gave its blood unwillingly, it automatically felt something like resentment, causing the blood to become cursed.
The other possibility was that unicorn blood was inherently poisonous or cursed.
Harley planned to first try to get the unicorns to willingly give her their blood, then study it.
Of course, if they weren't willing, she would just have to make them "willing."
If persuasion didn't work, it wouldn't hurt to use an Assassin's methods to make them shed a little blood.
In Harley's eyes, unicorns were nothing more than walking ingredients.
If the blood she obtained was still cursed, Harley thought that a Demoness skilled in curses might be able to break them, especially since she herself had mastered highly advanced knowledge.
If it was poisonous, then she would see whether the side effect of a Sealed Artifact could forcibly separate the toxin.
The following night, Harley cast a curse on her three roommates.
The curse wouldn't hurt them. It would only make them fall into a deep slumber, and it would disappear after six hours.
After glancing at the three sleeping girls, Harley picked up her other materials and vanished into thin air, moving swiftly along the walls.
The castle doors were already locked, but Harley nimbly climbed out of a second-floor window. Nothing could stop a skilled Assassin!
The lights were out in Hagrid's Hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Harley had no idea whether Hagrid was out on patrol or already asleep.
She didn't bother using Spirit Vision to check. She simply passed by Hagrid's Hut.
The sky was clear tonight, and moonlight spilled across the ground. It was a good time.
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